Save Me
by XxBamxX
Summary: When Felicity is attacked in the alley of Verdant, Roy comes to her rescue but it's Oliver she needs to help her get through the aftermath. Olicity
1. Chapter 1

**So this is my first fanfiction ever (excluding really lame ones I wrote when I was 14 and have since been deleted). With that being said, I apologize if it's terrible or for any mistakes. Sometimes I switch between past and present tense by mistake as well, so if I did that here please forgive me haha. Also, I changed the way I wanted this to go a few times so if anything contradicts itself let me know x.x Hope you guys enjoy!**

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><p>It was a late Friday night in Starling City and surprisingly quiet. Their night in the foundry consisted of Felicity working on a new computer program while Oliver and John sparred on the mats and Oliver occasionally climbing the salmon ladder which Felicity certainly was not complaining about.<p>

After they were done training, Oliver cleaned up and came back dressed in jeans and a blazer.

"I'm out. I've got a date with Lyla tonight." John said, grabbing his jacket, as Oliver came over to him and Felicity. John laughed as Felicity winked at him and held her fist out in a fist-bump gesture. He returned it as Oliver smirked at the exchange. John said his goodbyes to them as he made his way upstairs and Felicity turned back to her monitors.

"I have to go upstairs and talk to Thea. You want me to wait and walk you out?" Felicity shook her head and spun around in her chair to face Oliver.

"No that's okay. I don't want to keep you waiting and I don't know how much longer I'll be."

"Don't be here too late." He said, giving her a stern look.

"Oliver I can manage. Go do what you have to do." She jokingly pushed him away, "I won't stay up late and I'll be sure to lock up and look both ways before crossing the street." She stuck her tongue out at him as he turned to make his way up to the club.

She turned back to her computers to continue working. She didn't have a problem being alone in the arrow lair. This is where she felt safe. Though, as much as she'd hate to admit it, being out alone in the Glades at night did freak her out a little, but she was a grown woman for crying out loud.

She spent about another fifteen minutes working on her program before she finished. After shutting down all her computers and gathering her belongings, she went to shut all the lights off and then went over to the stairs to leave. On her way up she remembered it was a Friday night and did not feel like weaving her way through a mass of drunk people. She decided to just cut through the back alley. It would probably be quicker anyway considering where she had parked her car.

Making sure the lair door was properly shut and locked she walked towards the alleyway door while her ears were assaulted with loud club music. As she opened the door she was consumed with the frigid cold air. Hugging her jacket closer to her only helped to an extent considering her legs were still exposed from the dress she was still wearing from her day job as Oliver Queen's executive assistant.

As she starting walking down the alley, she momentarily forgot about her miniscule fear of being alone in the Glades at night until she heard catcalls and whistling from two drunk club patrons leaning against the wall.

Felicity tried to slightly pick up her pace, not enough for them to notice, but enough to make her feel a little bit better, as ridiculous as that sounded. _Nothing's going to happen. It's just some guys. Quit being so damn paranoid, Felicity! _Unfortunately, her own thoughts weren't enough to block out the sounds of the guys, who she then noticed were advancing towards her.

"Well, well, what have we got here? How are you on this fine night, gorgeous?" The tallest and probably most intimidating of them leered. Trying to summon all her confidence and courage she held her head high and smiled,

"Hello. If you'll excuse me, I have somewhere I need to be." She tried to hurry past them hoping they would leave her alone from there. She was almost passed them when the quieter one reached out and roughly wrapped his hand around her upper arm. Makes sense that that wouldn't have worked. She tried to scream, but before she could get a sound out she was being pushed backwards into the first guy and a hand went over her mouth to keep her from calling out.

"We're not quite done with you yet, sweetheart." The second guy said as he got in her face, the smell of alcohol and cigarettes assaulting her nose.

"We haven't even gotten started" said the guy who was behind her. While his hand was still against her mouth, he roughly pushed her against the brick wall. She suddenly snapped out of her fear induced haze and tried pushing and kicking the guy who held her tight against the wall. When that didn't work she maneuvered her head up just enough to be able to bite down on his hand.

"Ahh! You bitch!" he roared as he took his hand away only to swing it back hard against her face. She wanted to cry out but didn't want to give these men any satisfaction in showing her pain. However, she could not keep the stray tear that escaped from her eye.

As if they've done this before, the guy who had originally grabbed her arm was now standing guard while the other guy pushed her against the wall for the second time. She gasped in pain as her head bounced off the brick wall. As if sensing she was about to try and fight him off again, he pulled out a switchblade and held it tightly against her throat managing to draw a small amount of blood as the sharp blade cut through the skin.

"Try something again and it'll be the last thing you do"

Paralyzed by fear, all defensive training that Digg had drilled into her memory was gone as her jacket was quickly removed from her and a hand was then trailing up her thigh. She didn't want this. She wanted Oliver. The only thing keeping her somewhat sane right now was to think of Oliver. Much to her dismay, it wasn't enough to block out the fact that the guys lips were all over her face and neck. Hands where they shouldn't be. With his hand now very well up her dress, he roughly brought his hand to where she most certainly did not want it. Felicity let out a short sob as she squeezed her eyes shut to try and block it out.

Hearing a thud, her eyes shot open to see the guy standing watch on the ground unconscious and a blur of red as the guy was suddenly ripped from her. She let out a breath which felt like it was the first since she was approached. Felicity sunk to the ground, blindly searching through tear-filled eyes for her jacket. It was then that she realized how much she had been crying when her contacts were irritating her eyes. When a gust of cold air hit her legs she realized the bottom of her dress was still pushed up. Feeling like she wanted to vomit, she hurriedly pulled the bottom of her dress down to where it should be. Felicity closed her eyes and brought her knees to her chest hugging them to stave off the cold, not just from the weather, but from the shock as well.

Sudden warmth enveloped her as her jacket was draped against her.

"-icity. Felicity? Hey, can you hear me. Open your eyes." A hand touched her shoulder and her eyes shot open as she tried to jump back but not being able to get far since she was already sitting against the wall of Verdant.

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><p>"Roy! Take these out to the dumpster. They're doing nothing but getting in my way." Thea pointed to a crate of empty alcohol bottles behind the bar.<p>

"Say 'please'." Roy said as Thea pouted while stressing the word 'please'.

"That's more like it." He turned to head over to the crate only to run into someone.

"Ollie! What are you doing here?" questioned Thea. Oliver gave a nod to Roy and turned back to Thea.

"I wanted to talk to you about the gala we're having this weekend."

"Yeah, I'm just going to go take these out now," Roy put on his red hoodie, "I just have to go check on something with one of the bouncers real quick. Some guys were causing trouble here earlier. Got to make sure they kicked them out."

After he cleared up the problem with the bouncer, Roy grabbed the crate and headed back out to the alley where the dumpsters were kept. When he got outside he placed the crate on the floor to open the top of the dumpster when he heard a noise at the end of the alley. When he looked over all he saw were two guys, but as he walked closer he noticed a blonde girl being assaulted while another stood by as if on look out. Too bad for him he was facing the wrong direction. Picking up his pace, Roy ran over to the scum on watch and knocked him unconscious before the guy could even figure out there was a threat. Luckily the guy who currently had is hands all over a very non-consensual girl had not yet figured out anyone else was in the alley. Grabbing the back of the guy's shirt, Roy roughly pulled him away from the blonde and into the opposite wall. The guy hazily tried to get up and defend himself but Roy gave him no chance as a strong right hook to his head knocked him out cold.

When he was certain that both guys were no longer a threat and there was no one else around, he turned to the girl who was no curled up against herself against the building wall. As he got a closer look he realized that this wasn't just any girl. It was Oliver's IT girl, Felicity. He walked over with his heart in his throat seeing her shaking, eyes closed, with tears running down her face. Grabbing her jacket that was lying a few feet away, he gently covered her with it as best as he could while crouching down to her eye level.

"Felicity. Felicity? Hey, can you hear me. Open your eyes." He gently placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention while trying not to frighten her in the moment.

It didn't work. She shrieked and jumped back staring wide-eyed at Roy. It took her a moment before she recognized who it was and she slightly relaxed.

"Are you okay?" They both winced at their own accord, "Of course you're not okay." He said quietly to himself.

"Come on let's get you inside." He carefully put his arm around her shoulders and slowly helped her up. He took her jacket from her hands and helped her into it and then took off his hoodie and draped it around her shoulders.

As they made their way toward the door Felicity mumbled something that Roy couldn't make out.

"What was that?" She spoke again, still quiet, but this time enough for Roy to understand.

"O-Oliv-Oliv..er" she shivered.

"Oliver? Don't worry he's still inside talking to Thea. Let's get you settled in the office first and I'll get him."

Once inside, they navigated through the halls until reaching one of the office rooms. He led Felicity to the couch and sat her down. Sitting down next to her still shaking form, "I'm going to go find Oliver. Stay here. Don't go anywhere, okay? You're safe now." Hesitantly she nodded at him. As he left the room, she let out a shaky breath and leaned back into the couch trying not to break down any more than she already was. She could still feel the hands on her thighs, the lips on hers, the hot breaths in her face. She wanted to vomit. She wanted Oliver.

Roy ran out into the club area toward the bar where he had last seen his girlfriend and her brother. Spotting only Thea as she was talking to the bartender, he quickly hurried over to her.

"Thea! Where's Oliver?" he shouted not only to be heard over the music, but in fear Oliver had already left when it seemed he'd be the only one to calm a distraught Felicity.

"He's on his way out. Roy? What's going on?" Thea was not used to seeing her usually stoic boyfriend so frantic, especially to find her brother.

"Roy!" she shouted as his eyes searched for which way Oliver would have gone out.

"Felicity," Thea looked at him confused, "there were guys in the alley when she was trying to leave." The look he gave her was all she needed.

"You left her alone?!" Now she was worried. Sure, she didn't really know Felicity all that well, but she was close to Oliver and Walter. She knew she was a good person.

"She's in the back office!" Roy shouted as he finally spotted Oliver about to head out the club doors. He took off running while Thea quickly headed to the office.

Pushing through the crowd of drunk club patrons, he ignored their protests of him bumping into them. He wasn't sorry. This was way more important.

"Oliver! Wait up! Oliver!" he shouted as loud as he could over the blaring music and voices of everyone in the club. One of the bouncers at the door noticed and stopped Oliver from continuing as he nodded toward Roy. Oliver gave the bouncer a confused look before turning around.

"Roy. Everything okay?"

"You need to come with me" the demanding tone Roy used did not seem to go over well with Oliver.

"Excuse me? Roy, tell me what's going on."

"It's Felicity," Now he had Oliver's attention, "These guys in the alley-"

"Where is she?" If looks could kill, Roy was sure his life would have been over.

"She's in the back office." Before he could finish Oliver was hastily making his way through the club as Roy caught up.

"Talk." Oliver ordered. No tone for anything else.

"There were two guys. One standing watch while the other has her against the wall. Hands all over her" An animalistic noise emitted from Oliver and Roy wasn't sure if he even realized he made the noise, "I got them away, but she's shaken up. Really bad. The only thing she's said was your name." Roy rushed out. At the last part, Oliver's face went blank but his eyes showed nothing but rage and concern.

As they approached the door, Oliver ripped it open trying to control his anger at the thought of someone laying their hands on Felicity.

As the door flew open Felicity jumped in surprise, away from Thea who had come in only a few minutes prior to find Felicity staring into space. When she had entered the room at first she was taken aback by the sight of the normal babbling and upbeat Felicity Smoak, now distressed and quieter than she had ever seen her before. Not knowing what else to do she sat next to the blonde just trying to be there for her until Roy could inform Oliver of what had happened.

"Felicity…" Thea had never heard more emotion from Oliver since the Island, not even before. She got up from the couch to move next to Roy who was standing in the doorway.

Oliver walked straight toward Felicity without hesitation and without the caution most people would be using right now. Not because he didn't care for her state of being, but because it was like a known fact that she would always feel safe when he was around. Which proved to be true when he knelt down in front of her and softly cupped her face in his hands seeing red from what was now a bruise on her face from where she was hit.

It took her a moment to register what was happening but as soon as she looked at Oliver a weight lifted from her shoulders and a sob escaped from her lips as she lunged herself at Oliver wrapping her arms around him.

"Oh god. Oliver" He returned the embrace while moving up to sit beside her on the couch. Thea and Roy exchanged looks before leaving the room, quietly shutting the door behind them.

"Felicity," Oliver slowly pulled back so he could look at Felicity, "what happened? Talk to me."

"I …I-I was-… and he had his-" She barely made out the words before a new set of tears started to form and couldn't stop her lips from quivering, which only then made her remember the feeling of the other guys lips on hers. Frantically, she started rubbing her lips against the back of her hand trying to forget the feeling. Trying to banish any evidence of what happened from her memory.

Oliver gently grabbed her hands with his, "Hey. Shh It's okay. It's okay, I'm right here. No one's going to hurt you again." His words were so soft and gentle that had she not been as close to him as she was, she may have not even heard it. Conjuring up whatever strength she could muster, she began to speak.

"I, uh, I finished up my work so I decided to head home. I didn't want to go through the club crowd so I took the alley. It was closer to my car anyway. I thought it'd be a good idea," she let out a short humorless laugh, "jokes on me right?" Oliver held on tighter. "There were these two guys. I tried to get by them but the one grabbed my arm. The other one, he… he, um, oh god. He pushed me against the wall. He pulled off my jacket and his hands were on me." He was almost certain she wasn't aware of the fact that she pulled her hands away to subconsciously smooth out the part of dress covering her thighs, which as he looked down, he could see were also covered in faint bruises. _They were going to pay_. "He, he, uh, kissed me. I tried getting away but he was too strong. I tried. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Hey. Hey, look at me. You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for!"

"How am I supposed to help Arrow when I can't even fend off two drunk guys? I'm useless!"

"Don't you dare. You are nothing but perfect. You will never be useless, do you understand me?" She nodded, but not after some hesitation, and in doing so her hair moved slightly away from her neck where he caught a glimpse of red.

With a finger under her chin, he gently moved her head up to get a better look.

"Felicity." He started, with barely contained rage, "what happened to your neck?" He asked, praying she wasn't going to say what he feared he already knew.

Confused she brought her hand up to her neck resulting in a small sharp pain.

"Oh… He had a knife. He threatened me if I tried anything to get away again."

With his jaw clenched so tight he felt it might break, Oliver stood up and headed toward the door with the intent of putting about fifty arrows each into the men responsible for this. His hand was outstretched ready to grab the handle when he heard a strangled cry behind him.

She had no idea what happened at first. Then she saw the murderous look in his eyes and watched as he stormed toward the door. She knew his goal was to find those guy and go all Arrow on them, but as soon as he left her side, her stability and feeling of safety was fleeting. She felt ridiculous. Things could have gone so much worse and here she was falling apart like she never thought possible. When Roy first left her to get Oliver, a part of her was worried he would think she was pathetic for acting like this. But when she saw him, she didn't care how pathetic she looked. Oliver was there and she could breathe again. And now he was about to leave and she didn't know if she could handle it. Everyone gets an exception once in a while, and this was hers. She didn't just want Oliver. She needed Oliver. He was the only thing that could keep her frazzled mind grounded and he was about to leave her alone in an unfamiliar office. Though not like leaving her alone in the lair would be any better either.

"Oliver. Please don't leave. I… I don't want to be alone. I can't- …" Oliver turned toward her, no longer looking ready to kill as he gathered her in his arms. She tightly returned the hug as her shock was now wearing off. She suddenly felt completely drained and probably would have fell to the floor in a heap of desperate mess had Oliver not tightened his grip on her, practically holding her up.

'Come on. Let's get you home." Making sure her jacket was secure and buttoned around her, he took off his blazer draping it across her shoulders. Felicity folded Roy's hoodie and placed it on the arm of the couch. With one arm around her waist, he led her out of the office into the hallway. Upon passing the alleyway door, Roy entered from outside. His gave Oliver a short nod, barely noticeable. Later, Oliver would get a call from the SCPD asking if he knew anything about the two men beaten and tied up in the alley of his nightclub. Not only did he not know anything, but his security cameras had a malfunction that could not be recovered. As grateful as he was, Roy's work was nothing compared to what he would have done had be gotten his hands on them.

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><p><strong>So that's all I have so far... how did I do? I originally started writing this at work one day and meant to just write it all in one shot and post it all at once. Then I ended up making it longer than I had planned and figured I'd post what I had to motivate me to finish it... or <em>if<em> I should finish it? Thank you for reading!  
><strong>


	2. Chapter 2

As they approached the club area, Felicity stepped away slightly from her previous position of being practically glued to Oliver's side. She removed Oliver's blazer from around her shoulders and held it out to him.

"It wouldn't look right. I'm just your assistant to everyone else…people will talk. You don't need the questions if people notice" she said quietly in response to his confused stare. Taking the blazer from her hands he placed it back around her and moved to stand directly in front of her to meet her eyes.

"Felicity," he started softly, "Let them talk." He went to wrap his arm around her shoulder again, but when his hand made contact with her she involuntarily flinched from his touch. Immediately, a look of horror passed over her face at the realization of what she had just done.

"Oh god! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that! I know you would never hurt me. I don't know why I did that, I just… I- Please don't be mad" she stumbled out, the words pouring out of her mouth as quickly as she could. She was mortified. How could she be so weak that her body would betray her trust of the one person in the world she knew she could trust to never hurt her.

"Shh shh don't worry about it." he whispered as she wrapped her arms around him, not only for the comfort of the hug, but to prove she wasn't afraid of him. It was like a light switch being flicked, as she pushed back all her fear. It was the selfless part of her, the part that didn't want Oliver to feel bad or worry. He had so much more to be concerned about in his life as both Oliver Queen and as The Arrow.

Oliver watched the emotions pass through Felicity's face. He saw how the look of fear and regret quickly turned into a façade. Not that she wasn't strong, because if anything she was easily one of the strongest woman Oliver had ever known. However, he had no idea why she was trying to put on a brave front with him, especially under the circumstances.

As they arrived at her car, Felicity took out her keys that still managed to stay tucked away in her coat pocket. She started toward the driver's side when Oliver gently took the keys from her ushering her to the passenger side. She wanted to tell him that she would be fine driving, but not even she would have believed that. She was so tired. Opening the door for her, she sat down and in doing so the end of her dress rode up only enough to reveal hand shaped bruises on her inner thighs. Oliver saw red. His fingers clenching into fists at the same time his heart tightening in his chest, fearing that much worse went down than he thought. Feeling the turmoil radiating through Oliver, she looked up at him and followed his gaze. Gasping softly, having previously been unaware of the offending bruises, she tugged her dress down. Crouching down to Felicity's eye level, Oliver gently grabbed one of her hands in his.

"Felicity… Did-" he struggled with his words, a myriad of emotions running through him, "Do you need to go to a hospital?" She looked at him confused. Sure she was worse for wear with a couple scrapes and bruises, but why would she need a hospital? If anything, they had their own personal medical bay in the arrow lair. His gaze fell to her lap so quickly before looking back at her that the time was almost unmeasurable, but she caught it. His question suddenly made sense and she suddenly felt nauseous and balked when she felt her eyes once again welling with unwanted tears.

"No!" She couldn't get the word out fast enough, "No, that didn't happen. Thank god. His h- his hand … but he … no. No." Oliver let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and dropped his head in relief. He briefly squeezed her hand, "I'm sorry. I had to ask…" She gave a curt nod as he got up and shut her door before heading to the driver's seat. As he started the car and began to drive, Felicity finally let her exhaustion catch up with her and slowly drifted to sleep.

It wasn't long before she felt the car come to a stop and opened her eyes. Looking out the window she did a double take upon not seeing the familiarity of her neighborhood.

"My apartment…?"

"I'm not leaving you alone tonight."

"Oliver, I'm a big girl. I can be by myself. It wasn't even that bad, I was overreacting." He was about to interrupt when she started speaking again, "Really, just take me to my apartment. Please."

"What are you doing." It wasn't a question, not really, because he knew what she was doing. He knew her all too well.

"I'm not doing anything, Oliver. Just…please, just-"

"Felicity!" Anyone else would have thought he was yelling at her, but she knew him well enough to know that was just him trying to get her to listen when she was mid-rant.

"I'm sorry. I just really don't want to put you or your family out. You've done enough, really. I'm sorry if I messed up anything you had to get done." She said it all with faux courage but the fact that she said it all while staring straight ahead out the window was enough for him to know that she was still falling apart. He didn't know whether to be sad that she felt the need to put up a front for his sake, or proud that she was still trying to hold her head high.

Oliver was suddenly at her door opening it and holding out a hand. Knowing she wasn't going to get him to give it up she grabbed onto his hand and got out of the car. She'd be lying if she said she caved just for that reason. She also really didn't want to leave the comfort of Oliver's presence.

Walking into the house Felicity took a step closer to Oliver, suddenly feeling embarrassed and anxious should someone see her. "My mother is asleep and Thea is still at the club." He told her as if reading her mind. They headed toward the stairs up to the bedrooms and when Oliver opened one of the doors she stopped short. Oliver looked at her questioningly.

"This is your room…?" He nodded, "Surely you guys have guest rooms in this huge mansion."

"I told you I wasn't leaving you alone tonight. Wait here, I'll be right back."

As he left the room Felicity sat on the edge of the bed letting out a soft sigh. Alone with her own thoughts, emotions suddenly flooded through her. Before she could get a hold on any of them to try and control them Oliver walked back in the room holding sweatpants, a t-shirt, and a small first aid kit.

"Here," he handed her the clothes as she stood up, "These are Thea's. She won't mind, don't worry. You can change in the bathroom and then we'll get those cuts cleaned." He led her to the bathroom adjoining his bedroom. She gave him a small smile and thanked him before shutting the door so she could get changed.

Laying the clothes on the sink counter she gasped as she caught sight of herself in the mirror. There was an angry bruise that covered not only the outer corner of her left eye but down to the middle of her cheek and slightly under her left eye as well. Not to mention a small cut from where the skin had split on impact of the guys hand. She calmed her breaths and held back tears trying not to lose control of her emotions again. She shrugged out of her jacket taking note of the hand shaped bruise on her right arm as she carefully removed her dress. It was when she got a full look at the bruises covering her thighs that she lost all control of her emotions and everything she was feeling in the alley came rushing back to her. Not only was she remembering how terrified she was, but there was a ghost feeling of the guys hands and lips on her as well and she shuddered as she tried to keep her sobs at bay. It didn't work and even though she didn't think she had any more tears left in her to cry, a new set came flooding through her tear ducts. With the heavy sobs came a feeling of dizziness and she slid down to the floor.

When Felicity had gone into the bathroom Oliver changed out of his jeans and button-down into sweatpants and a t-shirt. Sitting on the bed he ran a hand through his hair before grabbing his cell phone to send a text to Digg letting him know what had happened and that she was safe but shaken up. As he placed the phone on his night stand he heard a muffled sob followed by a soft thud. Quickly getting up he went over to the bathroom door and knocked.

"Felicity?" He waited a beat, "Felicity! I'm coming in, okay?" she vaguely heard him through the door but was having trouble pulling herself. She didn't even have it in her to be embarrassed that she had never even got the other clothes on and was sitting there crying in her underwear and bra. More concerned than anything, the fact that she was nearly naked before him was the last thing on his mind. Any other day that would have been the first and only thing on his mind. Not now though. Now he was nearly constricted at the heartbreaking sight in front of him.

Kneeling down in front of her, he gently placed his hand on the unbruised side of her face trying to bring her attention to him.

"Hey" he breathed out, "Talk to me. What happened?"

When his hand touched her skin it was like an anchor pulling her back to the real world. Choking on a sob her eyes met his and the words were spilling out of her mouth quickly matching the rapid pace of her heart and short breaths.

"I'm… sorry. I'm sorry! I don't know w-what's wrong with me! I saw the bruises and I… I can…" With her breaths becoming slightly more erratic, Oliver shifted himself closer to her gathering her shaking hands in his.

"Felicity. Breathe! It's okay, you're okay." Just hearing his voice, along with his hands over hers was enough to calm her breathing. "You're freezing. Let's get you dressed and into the other room, okay?" Now that she had calmed down some, she was starting to feel not only self-conscious but now embarrassed as well. Figuring it was pointless to ask him to leave at this point, she put the clothes on only wincing a little when the clothes brushed against her still sore bruises. When they got back in Oliver's room they both sat at the edge of the bed.

"Wanna tell me what happened in there?" Felicity took a shaky breath wrapping her arms around herself thinking of how to explain what she felt to Oliver without sounding crazy. She didn't know how, instead, just hoping for the best. It seemed like a miracle of how calm she sounded compared to how she's been the rest of the night.

"I can still feel his hands on me." Oliver stiffened beside her, "I can feel his lips, and hear him breathing. Every time I shut my eyes I'm back in that stupid alley."

"I should have waited for you." He said it so quietly that it took her a moment to realize what he had said, but when it registered she looked up at him in surprise. The amount of guilt in his voice made her heart skip a beat.

"Oliver, no! This isn't your fault!" Shutting down that part of himself, he looked away.

"This isn't about me. Let's take care of those cuts." He got up and grabbed the first aid kit that he had placed on his dresser earlier. He didn't mean to close himself off like that. This easily could have been avoided if he had waited for Felicity and walked her to her car. He knew how the Glades were, especially for woman, and especially at night. If he ever came face to face with those men, he'd break their necks. Whether he was in Arrow gear or not. He knew Felicity would worry about him, or even feel guilty herself if she knew the amount of self-hatred he had for himself right now for not being there to protect her. But this is about Felicity, not him.

As Oliver cleaned the cuts on her neck and face, she tried holding back her wincing from the sting not wanting to make Oliver feel guilty for causing her pain. When he was does he stood up and pulled back the covers gesturing for Felicity to get into the bad. At the prospect of being able to shut her eyes and give into her exhaustion she got up and crawled under the covers. She smiled softly up at him but it quickly faded as she watched him grab a pillow from the other side of the bed and walk over to the couch he had in his room.

"Oliver?" She called to him hesitantly. He pivoted on his feet turning back to face her, "Yeah?" Confusion passed over him as she got out of the bed, suddenly thinking something was wrong.

"Felicity? What's wrong?" He didn't mean to sound as frantic as he did.

"You…I mean, uh, well it's your bed. I don't want you to have to sleep on the couch because of me. We can share the bed. Or I could sleep on the couch? Yeah, I'll sleep on the couch. You take the bed, I-" Oliver came up toward her and gently placed his hand on her arm halting her rambling.

"Felicity, it's no problem. Really, I don't mind the couch. Take the bed." Giving her a reassuring smile he turned to go back when Felicity reached out and grabbed his arm.

"Can you…Would you mind…." She looked away a little embarrassed to ask, but she would rather have him sleep in the bed with her. Not just for his own comfort, but for hers as well. When he turned back around and headed for the couch again she looked down dejectedly. Before she had the chance to go back to the bed, Oliver was at her side, pillow in hand.

"Come on." He said, putting his hand on the small of her back leading her back towards the bed. Felicity relaxed, not even realizing she had tensed up`. He waited for her to get in before he did as well. Turning to her to make sure she was comfortable, he saw that she was already asleep. Turning off the light, he closed his eyes thinking of how he could track down the assholes. Even though Roy had gotten his fight in, he was going to make sure they couldn't attempt something like they had ever again.

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><p><strong>Hey! So I decided to try and make this into more of a multi-chapter fic than just two. This one is a little shorter because there's only so much I was able to stretch this out and I didn't want the chapter being extremely short. Anyway! I have 1-2 more 'scene' ideas that happen right after this. Should I end it there or make it longer? If you want it longer, any ideas on where I should take it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for reading!<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey! I can't thank you guys enough for all the reviews and favs and everything! I love you all for it! Sorry for taking so long to post this chapter! I usually do it while I'm at work (so responsible) but never got around to it so I've been adding parts here and there. I'm not too sure how I feel about this chapter, but hopefully I didn't jump the shark too much. I'm trying to keep the characters like they are in the show but it's not easy, with Oliver especially haha. Anyway! I hope you guys enjoy! I'll try to have the next chapter up sooner than I did this one. Oh yeah, the whole one-shot/short story thing seems to have been thrown out the window. I'm not sure how long I intend for this to be right now but time will tell. Thank you!**

**P.s. If you guys notice a lot of typos or grammatical errors let me know and I'll try to be more aware.  
><strong>

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><p>Usually when Oliver woke up in the mornings his hearing would adjust to his surroundings first, mainly from countless times of being in situations where people couldn't know he was conscious and aware. Next he would slowly open his eyes letting them adjust to the lighting after having been closed for so long.<p>

So when his eyes shot open and he saw that he was in his bedroom he was confused seeing no immediate threat.

That is until he heard a distressed cry from his right. He was immediately aware of why he woke up the way he did when he looked over and saw Felicity tossing and turning next to him. After turning on the light on his bedside table he shifted his weight towards Felicity.

When he saw the tear marks streaked down her face and she anxiously called out his name he wasted no time in trying to awake her from her nightmare. Reaching out to try and bring her back to consciousness he was struck in the face as her arm swung out and met his face halfway. He was briefly taken aback by surprise more than anything.

When a small whimper fell from her lips, he sat up.

'Felicity" he tried softly at first but when her breathing picked up increasingly fast he threw the calm approach out the window.

'Felicity! Wake up, come on!" When he put his hand on her shoulder, she shot up just nearly missing a collision with Oliver's head. Each breath she took came out too fast for her to focus and weighed heavily in her lungs. Her eyes darted franticly around the room until they found Oliver and she threw her arms around his neck. Without hesitation he wrapped an arm around her waist, the other resting against the back of her head. Noticing her breaths had not yet gone back to normal he pulled back slightly, his hands coming to rest on either side of her face.

"Felicity, hey, listen to me. You have to calm down! You've got to breath or you're going to hyperventilate, you hear me? Come on, deep slow breaths okay?" It was only a minute before she was calm but to her it felt like hours.

Letting out a shaky breath, she pulled back from Oliver and moved to sit back against the headboard slowly letting her head fall back against the headboard running her hands over her face stopping when she felt the pain of the bruise on her face.

"God I'm such a mess."

"You're going to be fine, Felicity. You're strong."

"Yeah… I thought I was." She gave him a sad smile before averting her eyes. "What time is it?" Grabbing his phone off the night stand, he read off the time of 8:23am.

"The curtains block out the light from outside" Oliver informed her when she looked toward the window confused at the lack of natural light in the room.

"Nifty" she responded, "um… Would it be alright if I showered?"

"Of course." Oliver got up from the bed offering his hand to her as he walked her over the bathroom door showing her where everything she would need was located.

When she closed the door to the bathroom separating her from Oliver she let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. She was still shaken from her dream, or nightmare she should say. Upon waking up she forgot most of it, but she still got the gist of it, still remembered the feelings. Not only did she almost have to relive the night, but it conjured up her feelings for Oliver as well. It was no secret that she was attracted to him since the beginning and over she developed more than just platonic feelings. So when she started dreaming of him it was no surprise. Not in a sexual way, however, she wouldn't have minded and would be lying if she said that had never happened before.

She had dreamt that she was in bed with Oliver, curled up against him with one of his muscular arms wrapped around her waist. She hadn't even realized it was a dream seeing as how she was actually in a bed with Oliver Queen in real life. In blurry clips she remembers him waking, them talking, and then him leaning in to kiss her, but just as he leaned in, things changed. She was back outside of Verdant only this time Oliver was standing nearby. And as the guy was once again all over her, she cried out for Oliver but it was like he didn't hear her. Making no indication that she was even there or in trouble. Unlike in real life, however, Roy had never been there to help her. As she looked to dream-Oliver for help, he disappeared and the guy continued. She cried out for Oliver the whole time until his voice brought her back to reality.

As she stripped out of the borrowed clothing, she mentally prepared herself so she wouldn't have another breakdown. In the end she decided it would be easier to just avoid looking at herself the whole time. Unfortunately sight wasn't the only sense she wished she could have done without in that moment. While washing herself with a wash cloth she had found, her bruises once again became sore. When she was washing her hair, the bump she received from knocking it against the brick wall made itself known. To her dismay, the quick shower she planned had taken twice the time.

When she was done she noticed a new pair of what must have been Thea's clothing resting on the sink. After getting dressed in the new set of clothing, she went to put her hair up in its usual ponytail. When her hand brushed against her face and she felt slight pain, she remembered the bruise on her face. Feeling self-conscious she decided to leave her hair down instead hoping to cover it as best as she could.

Felicity walked back into Oliver's room only to find him not there. Not knowing what else to do she left the room to see where he went.

Stepping out of the room she spotted Thea down the hall. Suddenly feeling embarrassed that she had been witness to Felicity sobbing in her clubs office, and that she was coming out of Oliver's bedroom she quickly turned around to head back into the room but it was too late.

"Felicity!" Thea ran over to her and hugged her, pulling away when Felicity tensed, "How are you doing? … That's a stupid question, I'm sorry."

"No… it's fine." Felicity hesitated, "Thank you for, um, being there last night. And when you see Roy… I can't thank him enough." She mentally cursed as she felt the all too familiar stinging in her eyes.

"Have you seen Oliver?" She asked quickly not wanting to feel any more awkward than she already did.

"Yeah, he, uh, he's downstairs." Thea tried to hide her confusion at how quickly the blonde changed the subject. Thanking her, Felicity hesitantly turned to head downstairs when Thea called out to her.

With a soft "Come on" Thea hooked her arm with Felicity's and lead her towards her brother. As they descended the staircase she could hear Oliver and Detective Lance talking.

"- won't be long."

"Detective…"

"Mr. Queen, it's important we get a statement and we-" He was cut off as a loud banging sounded throughout the house. Startled by the abrupt noise, Felicity lost her balance and slipped on one of the steps.

"Felicity!" Thea gasped as she grabbed on to the blondes arm to keep her from falling completely.

When Felicity had gone into the bathroom to shower, Oliver went over to Theas room. Knocking gently on her door to see if she was even awake he waited and was about to turn to leave when he heard the door knob move.

"Hey, Speedy."

"Ollie! What are you doing here? You didn't stay with Felicity?" Her eyed widened, "Oh my god, did you leave her alone?!"

"Thea! Keep your voice down. I did not leave Felicity alone. She was with me."

"With you? Did you forget about the guest rooms we have in the house?" She asked lightly.

"Not now. I came to ask if you had clothes you could lend to Felicity until she gets back to her apartment."

"Yeah of cou-" She was cut off mid-sentence as Raisa came up to them letting Oliver know that Detective Lance was downstairs. Thanking her as she made her wake back downstairs, he turned back to Thea. "I'll just bring them to her myself then…" she said as she went back into her room to get a set of clothing together.

Masking the many emotions he had been feeling, he headed towards the living room where Detective Lance was waiting.

'"Queen." Oliver nodded in acknowledgment and greeting.

"Detective. What brings you here?"

"Ms. Smoak. Two men were found beaten and left for dead in the alley of your nightclub. Ms. Smoak's purse was left behind. We would like to bring her in to get a statement of what happened. Presumably for her to press charges as well if my assumptions are correct?" Oliver stiffened.

"She's had a rough night. Surely this can wait." Oliver said, jaw clenching.

"Oliver…please. I understand, but we need to get a statement to charge these guys or else they walk. It won't be long-"

"Detective…" He started but was cut off as Detective Lance started talking again, "Mr. Queen, it's important we get a statement and we-" This time he was cut off as Oliver threw the nearest chair towards the ground. He wasn't about to make Felicity relive her night so early in the morning only hours after it had happened. He was about to tell the detective to shove it when he heard Thea's cry from the other room.

Oliver ran out into the foyer as Thea was attempting to help Felicity up from her current position of half laying on the steps and half leaning against the banister.

"Felicity!" Oliver ran up the remaining stairs to the girls, "What happened? Are you okay?" Too embarrassed to say anything, Felicity hesitated, then with a small nod of confirmation, she looked up at Oliver.

"Thea?" Oliver looked at his sister questioningly.

"She just got startl- She slipped." Thea quickly corrected herself not wanting her brother to blame himself, knowing he caused the noise and not by accident. It was too late though and he was quickly filled with guilt. Felicity noticed this and was about to intercept his guilt-ridden mood when she saw Detective Lance was there. She hadn't even realized he came out of the room him and Oliver had just been in.

Oliver wrapped an arm around her waist and helped her stand just as Detective Lance spoke up.

"Ms. Smoak…" e wHeHjFrom the bottom of the stairs he was able to sense Oliver's guilt rolling off of him in waves. Which was an honest surprise to him because he of course didn't have the greatest opinion of the young billionaire. Seeing this side of him was not something he expected which made him question the relationship he has with his assistant. But as he spoke her name, he watched as the guilt vanished only to be replaced with the anger that had put them in this current situation in the first place.

"Detective," Oliver said through clenched teeth descending the stairs with Felicity, Thea not far behind. "Not now… please." At first Felicity was confused as to what was going on. As she was about to ask what the detective wanted with her, she saw her forgotten bag from the previous night sitting on the table near the door and felt like an idiot for not realizing.

"Ms. Smoak, two guys were found brutally beaten and tied up outside of Verdant. The only thing we found was your bag. Now, they're not talking and there seems to be no security footage. We need to know what happened and you seem like you might know something." He pointed to his face in gesture of her own bruise. "We just need you to come down to the station for a statement."

"I…" She didn't even know where to start and besides that she was suddenly realizing she still wasn't comfortable saying what happened out loud. She trusted Oliver more than she trusted herself and it was hard enough talking to him about it.

"Can't this wait?" Thea spoke up from behind them.

"If we wait too long then they walk." Felicity shuddered at the thought. "Right now we have nothing to go on except that they're the victims."

"Victims? Are you kidding me?!" Oliver lost it at the idea of anyone thinking those assholes were victims. They'll be victims when he put an arrow in them, and even then the term 'victim' would be used very loosely when it came to them.

"I'll do it." Surprising even herself at the confidence in her voice she repeated herself. "I'll do it, just… does it have to be right now?"

"The sooner, the better." Detective Lance said to her. His authoritative tone now replaced with a gentler one.

"We'll be at the station around noon." Oliver looked down at Felicity for confirmation and she nodded her head.

"Okay. I'll be at station whenever you get there." He looked towards Oliver, "A word before I go?"

Knowing he'd be hesitant to leave her alone, Thea stepped up grabbing Felicity's hand, "Let's go eat. Raisa made breakfast."

Oliver watched as they left, not turning to Detective Lance until they were out of sight. Upon meeting the other man's eyes, Oliver saw a look he couldn't quite place.

"Oliver... While I hate to say it, I feel it's a given that my assumptions were correct upon seeing her. She's going to need to identify these guys and it's probably best she has someone there with her for that. It's not going to be easy and we need a full statement."

Closing his eyes briefly to try and stem the emotions going through him at the thought of putting Felicity through that but knowing it needed to be done, he nodded.

After Lance left the mansion, Oliver made his way into the kitchen to find Felicity. When he entered he noticed she had barely touched her food as Thea tried to converse with her to keep her distracted.

When Thea noticed Oliver she gave him a sad smile before getting up to leave the room. Oliver walked over to Felicity lightly putting his hand on her shoulder. She looked at him giving him a small smile in return.

"We all have to face our demons at some point, right? Might as well do it sooner rather than later." His grip on her shoulder tightened a little in response and he looked her in the eyes. He could see her slowly putting up the walls in her head and it killed him.

"Did you…" The unfinished question of what happened lingered in the air, but he understood.

"Roy." She looked away. She owed that kid her entire life.

"Can we stop at- … at Verdant on the way? I would like to erase any proof of that. I don't want him getting into any trouble."

"It's already been done. I'm assuming Thea got a hold of the security footage."

"Good. T-That's good." Her voice shook, hoping that neither Thea nor anyone else saw what else happened in the alley, mortified at the thought.

When 11:30 came around, Felicity went to the foyer to meet Oliver so they could leave. When she got there she saw not only Oliver, but Diggle as well.

"John? What are you doing here?"

"Came to give you guys a ride of course!" He said with a smile but his eyes narrowed as he caught site of the bruising on her face. When Oliver had sent him the text last night he was furious, but knew there was nothing he could do for her especially since Roy has already taken care of most of it. Though, just like Oliver, he was confident he would have actually killed them instead.

They left the mansion, Digg driving while Oliver and Felicity sat in the back in typical procedure. Part of her wanted to take her car. To not have to be chauffeured there. But a more demanding part of her needed to have Oliver and Digg with her. She could try and put up all the walls she could muster but she would be kidding herself if she thought she could fair on her own given the chance that she could have her two closest guys with her.

She felt like she was in the car for ages. It didn't help that her nerves were against her and she noticed her hands starting to shake as anxiety slowly starting building inside her. She held clasped her hands together in her lap to try and stifle the shaking. If either Oliver or Digg noticed, they didn't say anything. A couple minutes later, however, she noticed Oliver was now sitting slightly closer to her. Her eyes began to water at the gesture but she pushed them back. She pushed back all her emotions trying her best to distance herself from what she knew she was about to have to go through.

When the finally arrived, Digg got out opening the door on Oliver's side. Once Oliver was out he held his hand out for Felicity. She hesitated briefly before putting her hand in his and exiting the car. As they ventured away from the car they spotted paparazzi nearby who had also recognized Oliver. He was suddenly torn between wanting to be close to Felicity and keeping distance to keep up the CEO-slash-executive assistant persona that the two of them had to the public eye. The answer was made for him as Felicity released his hand taking a step back away from him all while keeping her eyes straight ahead as if nothing happened.

Felicity concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other while tuning out the rest of the world. She was putting all her focus on just being able to keep her breathing normal and her slowly crumbling walls from crashing into a pile of despair.

She thought she was doing a pretty good job.

That is, until a hand grabbed her arm. The same arm she a hand shaped bruise on.

She gasped in not only pain but in complete fear as her mind was once again brought back to the night before.

She was only vaguely aware of the hand being forcefully removed from hers. The cracking sound as Oliver's fist met the face of the guy who had just had his hand on her. She faintly remembers hearing Digg yelling at everyone to move back as a familiar set of arms wrapped around her. She was guided towards the front door of the police station where uniformed police officers were making their way towards the small crowd of paparazzi.

Upon entering the vestibule of the building, Oliver turned her around to face him, concern written all over his face.

"Are you okay?… Felicity. Look at me. You're safe, okay?"

"Y-You shouldn't have done that..." She said slowly at first, "Oh my god, Oliver, you really shouldn't have done that! They have all those cameras. You could get into so much trouble. What if they press charges? Oh no, I'm so sorry!" Just then Digg walked into the building with Detective Lance and two officers holding a bunch of cameras.

"Mr. Queen! Punching people really isn't the best solution to things, don't you think? However, given the circumstances…. and the fact that no one saw a thing," He gave Oliver a knowing look, "Also, we don't allow the paparazzi on our property so their equipment has been confiscated and any images from just now will be deleted."

Felicity breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

Oliver thanked the detective as well, though not as verbal as he was still tense from the occurrence. His anger deep within beginning to slowly boil over. He was doing his best to push it back for now, but when heard Felicity's cry outside he wished he could have done more than just punch the guy in the face.

The three of them followed Detective Lance through the halls until they came to a stop outside of one of the rooms.

"Ms. Smoak, we just need you to identify the men first before anything else." She bit down her nerves and nodded. She just wanted to forget about everything and go home. She was more than willing to put these guys behind bars for however long as long as it meant she wouldn't have to deal with this any longer.

Oliver, not wanting to leave her side, followed the detective and Felicity into the room. Not after Detective Lance tried to suggest he wait outside the room. The glare he received from Oliver quickly put an end to that. With Digg waiting outside the room in typical bodyguard persona, they entered the room. A two-way mirror took up a majority of one of the walls, while an office stood by.

"When you're ready, we're going to bring a group of men into that room. You can see them, they can't see you. We'll just need you to say the numbers of the men that… that you saw last night." She nodded, holding her head high as Oliver stood by her side.

"I'm ready." Detective Lance signaled for the officer to let the other officer in charge in the room that they were ready. One by one six men were brought into the room standing side by side each holding a card with a chronological number.

Taking a deep breath she raised her head to look through the window calming her nerves enough to be able to properly identify the guys who made her such a mess.

When she looked up, her eyes widened.

"Two of these guys are the guys you found in the alley?"

Giving her a question look, Detective Lance confirmed.

"The… The guys who did this to me," She suddenly felt like she was going to be sick, "are none of these men." Oliver whipped his head towards her, while Lance came to stand in front of her.

"Ms. Smoak these are the guys we found in the alley, are you saying none of these men look familiar to you?"

"I'd know their faces anywhere. They're not here." It was getting harder to breath, "They're still out there."


	4. Chapter 4

Quentin Lance was well experienced in law enforcement. He was an officer for years before becoming one of the best detectives of not only his precinct but of all of Starling City. He couldn't tell you how many criminals he put behind bars, how many witnesses he spoke to, people he helped. He could easily spot a victim of abuse within seconds, which was why it didn't take long after seeing Felicity Smoak that he didn't even need to question her before knowing that she was indeed involved in something outside of Verdant. Even though he barely knew the girl other than the fact that she was working with the Arrow, he didn't need to work up much emotion to feel sympathy for the girl.

Just the fact that she was nearly his own daughters' age and that he knew her somewhat personally made him want the guys responsible to pay for it. So when Felicity said these weren't the guys, he was not only shocked but a sense of defeat came over him as he realized he was no longer able to put those men behind bars for the young blonde's sake.

"Felicity, sweetheart, look again. Are you _sure_ these aren't the guys?" She looked toward the lineup again, looking away quickly when she felt the familiar burn in her eyes. "I'm sure." She said it so quietly that the older man wouldn't have heard it if he wasn't standing right in front of her.

"I want to know what those two know. Put them in an interrogation room. Now!" The officer that was there got up and left the room to make the arrangements. Detective Lance quickly, and unhappily, left the room. Oliver quickly followed suit.

"Detective!"

"Not now, Queen."

"Hey!" Lance stopped short turning to put Oliver in his place but didn't get the chance. "I know those rooms have the two-way as well. Let us be there. If they know anything- Felicity has more of a right than anyone to know what that is." He watched as the detective held his gaze before looking over Oliver's shoulder. He turned to see Felicity standing behind him. She had come out into the hall upon hearing Oliver's Arrow voice, intending on stopping him from risking himself. Detective Lance looked at her.

"Ms. Smoak?" She nodded. She wanted to know- needed to know if they knew what had happened to the other guys. As Detective Lance gestured for her to follow him she stopped.

"I… Can they come with me?" She said hesitantly. "Please" She added upon seeing his apprehension. He sighed heavily. "Fine, but you two stay in that room until I'm done in there, do you hear me?" He sensed the three of them were close based on the protectiveness radiating off both Oliver and his bodyguard. He didn't need his interrogation interrupted by the two of them.

As they made their way down the hall, Digg came up beside Oliver as Felicity walked with Detective Lance. "What did I miss exactly?" he asked quietly enough for only Oliver to hear.

"The guys the cops found aren't the same guys who attacked Felicity."

"Is it possible they got away before Roy took care of them and just got the wrong guys?" Oliver shook his head.

"No. Roy was the one who took them out to begin with. He saw their faces."

When they reached the adjacent room, Oliver went to Felicity's side. She was staring into the room where one of the guys was sitting. Her posture stiff as she had one arm wrapped around herself with the other hand up to her mouth anxiously biting her nail. When she noticed his presence she turned to him.

"Oliver, what's happening?" Her voice barely came out as a whisper but her tone was full of anguish.

"I don't know, but if they don't know find out, I will."

They watched as Detective Lance entered the room and sat across from the guy.

"Aaron Lassiter. Age 24. No criminal record."

"Yeah, what's your point? I told you guys already. Someone mugged us so what's with the interrogation?" The kid replied with attitude.

"I'm asking the questions not you." Detective Lance was already fed up with his arrogance. "If you were mugged, then why is it that you don't have a scratch on you?" Aaron shifted, clearly uncomfortable. "Would you like to tell me what really happened?"

"I told you what happened." The arrogance in his tone was now replaced with uncertainty. Detective Lance slammed his hands on the table as he stood. Felicity jumped at the sound as Oliver and John stood closer, fully intent on hearing what this kid had to say.

"Do you really want to play this game? Tell me what you know or I'll lock you up. We'll charge you as an accessory. Do you really want that when all you have to do is tell me what you know!" His voice increased as went on. Aaron remained silent as the detective sat down.

"Someone was attacked in that alley. Since you and your friend were the only ones seen there, then I guess we can assume you're responsible?" He stood again when he received no answer. "Okay. Excuse me, I need to arrange for your arrest of assault." He made his way to the door.

"Wait!" Aaron sighed as he hung his head, "Look, I'll tell you, okay?" Detective Lance walked back to the table. "Paul and I were leaving Verdant when we passed the alley and saw these two guy tied up. We were gonna call the cops, but they stopped us. Told us if we untied them and took their place they'd give us each five hundred dollars."

"You willingly had two strangers, who I'm assuming you knew weren't good people, tie you up and leave you in an alley?" Detective Lance looked at him dumbfounded.

"Well… yeah, we needed the money. Things have been tight since the Glades went down, ya know?"

"Why not just tell us that from the beginning?" Silence. "Mr. Lassiter, it is in your best interest to full comply here." After some hesitation he answered.

"They told us they'd give us another $500 if we didn't mention them." He suddenly looked nervous.

"And?" Detective Lance said shortly, his patience with the kid rapidly wearing thing.

"And… and uh… they said they'd be able to hook us up."

"Drugs. Are you fucking kidding me? So you not even… ya know what, nevermind. So they're gonna hook you up, pay you some extra cash. Where were you supposed to meet up with them?"

Aaron stared at him blankly.

Detective Lance blinked. "Okay, did you get their names?"

The kid closed his eyes, sitting back in the chair, "Shit…"

"That's great," he started to laugh, "You're a genius, ya know that?" He hit the back of the chair he sat previously with such force it slammed against the table. The sound reverberating through the room. "A real fucking genius! No names…Would you be able to describe them for a sketch artist?"

Eyes shifting around the room nervously, "Well, um… I could try?"

"You could _try_?" Detective Lance repeated.

"It's just that it was dark, and we may have been… under the influence? They were pretty beat up, if that helps." The older man smiled.

"Yeah, actually that helps _so _much!" The kid started to relax until Detective Lance got up and headed towards the door. Opening it, he called to an officer waiting outside the door. "Put him in a holding cell."

"Wait! A holding cell? I didn't-"

"Not another word." He said as he left the room, the officer coming in to escort Lassiter to a cell.

Inside the other room Oliver was silently seething at the new information. In all his training, he drilled it into Roy not kill unless absolutely necessary. He was wishing he could take that all back now.

When he heard the whisper of his name, he looked over at Diggle to see his gaze on Felicity. Turning to look at her he saw that the girl who usually wore her heart on her sleeve was now showing absolutely no emotion as she stared into the now empty interrogation room. Just as he was about to say something, Detective Lance entered the room.

"Ms. Smoak, I'm going to need you to come with me." Oliver was speaking before she could even completely register that Lance had spoken to her.

"What for?" When he answered, he looked to Felicity rather than Oliver, "There's a sketch artist down the hall. We'd like you to come describe what the men who attacked you looked like." Felicity nodded in confirmation, but not looking any of them in the eye as she started towards the door to follow the detective. When Oliver and Digg made to follow, Lance stopped them.

"It would be best if she didn't have any distractions." Oliver was about to protest when Felicity held up a hand. "It's okay, Oliver." She gave him a reassuring smile before heading down the hall with Lance.

"Oliver, sit down and stop drawing so much attention to yourself." Oliver stopped his pacing at Diggs hushed, but assertive tone. Oliver turned to glare to glare at him but Digg spoke again, "There's nothing you can do right now. She's safe in there and you standing out here looking like you're going to put an arrow through everyone isn't going to help anyone. Now sit down." Digg tried to sound as neutral as possible as to not bring even more attention to the two of them. Oliver sighed as he took a seat next to Digg on one of the benches occupying the hallway.

"What's going on? Who are we dealing with here?" Oliver couldn't keep his frustration hidden.

"I'm not sure, but we will find out. We'll get these guys, Oliver, you just have to calm down."

"Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down when they- when they… she didn't deserve this, John! I-I…" Oliver cringed at how his voice broke, how his heart clenched. His inner turmoil was getting the best of him, but he was near devastation. This shouldn't have happened to her. It shouldn't happen to anyone. This was Felicity, however, and it happened right outside his nightclub. The nightclub he was in at the time. He was so close and yet he had no idea what was happening until it was too late.

His thoughts were interrupted as one of the doors opened and Felicity and Detective Lance stepped out. Oliver and John quickly stood as they walked towards them. Oliver walked up to Felicity, resting his hand against her arm, needing to feel the contact with her. She returned the gesture with a small smile.

He looked towards Lance, taking a step towards him, hand still on Felicity's arm, "Let me see what the sketch artist came up with." Lance sighed.

"It's already been taken to be printed up. We'll handle this, there's nothing more you can do," _That's what you think, _"We'll be in contact, Ms. Smoak." He gave them a nod as we went to walk away. Oliver went to stop him, to demand more information, but Felicity grabbed his arm.

"Oliver, please. I just want to get out of here." She watched the muscles in his jaw tighten as he thought over her words before looking down at her. His eyes softened before nodding his head. "Let's go."

As they headed to the front doors, Oliver stopped sighing heavily, "I forgot about the paparazzi."

"They confiscated their cameras, didn't they?" John asked.

"Trust me, they always have a backup. Plus who knows if any more showed up."

John turned to an officer standing by the front door and asked if there was a back door he could drive to. When the officer confirmed, John walked out to get the car while the officer escorted Oliver and Felicity to the back door. They arrived a bit earlier than Diggle was able to get the car there. As they stood there, Felicity turned to Oliver.

"I'm sorry for putting you in this position." Felicity apologized just as Digg pulled up with the car, getting out to open the door for them. She didn't give him a chance to respond as she walked down the concrete steps to the car.

"Felicity…" Oliver started to say as they drove away from the precinct.

"Can we stop at the foundry?" Digg looked at Oliver through the rearview mirror questioning whether or not to proceed with Felicity's request.

"What for?"

"I still have some things to finish up from yesterday. I don't want to put the off much longer." Oliver looked at a loss for words before composing himself.

"Felicity, whatever it is, I'm sure it's not that important. It can wait." She shook her head.

"Please, just… I need my mind on something else. Anything else. Please." She inwardly cursed herself for nearly begging. After a couple minutes of silence she thought maybe Oliver didn't hear her and was about to repeat herself when he sighed, "Okay, but not long."

"Thank you. I don't need much time. You need to get ready for the gala tonight anyway."

_Shit._ He had forgotten all about that, "And don't even think about trying to get out of it. You're going." He glared at Digg as he saw him smirk through the mirror.

When they arrived at the foundry, Oliver wasn't sure what to expect, but when Felicity strode in like it was any other day, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't surprised. She immediately went over to her computers and started working. Figuring he had some time before she was done, he took off his shirt and starting to vent his anger and frustration in working out.

Felicity went to finish the final touches on her programs while simultaneously hacking into the police database to access the sketch the artist drew up. Secretly. She wanted to see who the guys were, but she knew if Oliver knew, he would track them down and most likely kill them. He had already broken his promise to Tommy once for her and the last thing she wanted was for that to happen again. He put three arrows in The Count on a whim. She didn't want to know what premeditated things Oliver would do if he got his hands on these guys. _As much as they deserved it. _But he didn't deserve to have blood on his hands on account of her. Not again.

She cursed as her computer _dinged_ at finding a match.

"What was that?" She jumped at Diggs voice.

"Oh. Nothing. It's just letting me know the program is almost completed." She hated lying them.

When Digg went back to whatever he was doing she relaxed slightly until the sound of Oliver going to town on one of his workout equipment caught her attention. Looking at the clock she was shocked to see it was nearly five o'clock. She hadn't realized she'd been down there so long. Quickly transferring her findings to her tablet, she finished the rest of her program before shutting down the computers.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't realize what time it was! You need to get home and get ready." Oliver stopped and looked at his watch. Knowing she was adamant about him keeping up the responsible billionaire-Oliver-Queen façade, he stopped his abuse against the boxing stand and gathered his stuff.

"Can you bring me back to pick up my car?" She asked Digg as they made their way up the stairs.

"Yeah, of course." He replied with certainty.

"Felicity, you can stay at the mansion. It's not a problem." Oliver still wanted to keep her close. Keep her safe.

"I appreciate that, Oliver, thank you. But I'll be fine."

"You can come with me to the gala." Oliver suggested.

"With this massive bruise?" She pointed to her face, "I'll pass. Really, it's fine. I kind of just want to be alone for a while, nothing against you guys. I really do appreciate all your help." He let it go at that. Not wanting to push her.

When they got back to the Queen residence, Digg opened their door, Oliver getting out first and holding his hand out for Felicity. She went to grab her keys when she realized she didn't know where they were. Looking at Oliver questioningly, she was about to ask him if he knew of their whereabouts when he pulled them from his coat pocket. "Thank you."

"Oh… I'm still wearing Thea's clothes…" All she had here was the dress from last night, which for all she cared, could have been thrown out. She wouldn't have missed it.

"Don't worry about it. You can return them another day, it's not a big deal."

"Okay, well, I'll see you guys later. Have fun tonight, would you." Giving Oliver a stern look, she walked to her car. Oliver's fists clenched at his side. His anger over not being able to be of more help to her, of not being able to have stopped things before they started. For not being able to do the one thing he was good at; putting an arrow into the ones who deserved it most.

"Just go through the motions and we can look into finding these guys after. You still have a reputation to uphold." Oliver scoffed.

"What's the point."

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><p>By seven o'clock, the Queen mansion was filled with most of the richest people in Starling City. His mothers friend wanting to start a non-profit organization asked for her help and she returned it by holding this event to get people to donate. He's been to so many of these he could have done it with his eye closed. Since being back from the island though, these things seemed to irk him more and more.<p>

John had attended the gala as well, as added security for the event per request from Moira. Oliver nodded at him in greeting as he passed him. Oliver did his usual mingling and talking to as many people as he could, trying to keep his mind off more important things. About forty minutes into the night, Roy saw an opportunity to approach Oliver when Thea had gone off with her mother to talk to a close family friend.

"There were cops all over Verdant earlier. Did they lock those guys up?" Roy inquired quietly. Oliver's jaw clenched and he led them to a vacant part of the room.

"They got the wrong guys." Oliver told him tersely.

"_What?_ What do you mean they got the wrong guys? I had them tied up, I did everything but actually kill them. How did they get away?" Roy was suddenly feeling guilty. Oliver had trained him to approach things differently than with murder, so he did whatever he could to them while still respecting Oliver's previous wishes. He was more than willing to kill those guys on site when seeing them with Felicity. He's regretting not taking the chance now.

"They got some kids passing by to switch places with them. Offered them money among other things." Oliver didn't blame Roy, but explaining what happened was making Oliver just as frustrated as he was earlier, if not more. Thea had come over, having been looking for Roy, wanting to introduce him around.

It was nearing the end of the event and Oliver was getting restless, wanting nothing more than to call Felicity and make sure she was okay. Unfortunately he was cornered by Mrs. Benson, one of his mothers friends from when he was a kid, and she sure knew how to talk. He was trying to get Diggs attention to save him from her one-sided conversation when the sound of glass shattering filled the room. It had happened earlier in the night a few times, where someone broke a glass, so not much attention was given. However when Oliver looked to where the noise had come from, he saw Roy staring across the room looking ready to kill as Thea tried to get his attention.

Roy was just about to make his way over to his intended destination when Oliver stepped in, grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the room.

"Roy! What's the matter with you!" Thea shouted, confused by her boyfriends mood-swing. Oliver stepped in his line of sight as Roy tried to break from his grip. Physically he could at any time but he knew not to show his strength in public, especially not in front of Thea. Digg gently ushered Thea out of the room and it was then Oliver even noticed he had joined them. He quickly returned as Roy's attitude was revealed.

"He's here! That bastard is here! Let me go, I'll kill him!"

"Who's here?" Oliver questioned as he braced himself in front of Roy before the kid did something stupid.

"One of those assholes that attacked Felicity! He's here, I saw him!"

"_What?_" Oliver was suddenly seeing red, "Where? What does he look like?" The three of them now standing in the entrance of the doorway, looked into the room. Oliver having no problem releasing Roy's mirakuru induced strength or his own strength to end this guy.

"Red tie, short brown hair, a little shorter than you. He was just talking to that woman in the blue dress. Where the fuck did he go?!"

John, though equally wanting to put an end to whoever hurt his friend, was seemingly the only voice of reason and needed to put a stop to the hell these two were going to raise.

"Oliver. Oliver! You can't do anything about this right now. You'll risk everything."

"Maybe he can't, but I can." Roy grounded out.

"And spend the rest of your life in jail? There are people all over this place. You will not get away with it as easily as you think. You're both blinded by rage right now and you need to start thinking clearly." Oliver glared at him ready to tell him off but Digg started again. "Go talk to that woman and find out his name. Who he is. After you're free as 'Ollie Queen' we can go to the foundry and look him up. But you can't, that goes for you too, go and outright kill him. Even if you do that, the other one is still out there somewhere."

He didn't want to admit it, but Diggle was right. This wasn't how things were supposed to be handled. Roy was about to object when Oliver gave him a look that left no argument.

"We'll find out who he is. As soon as everyone is out of here, we're going to the foundry." He left the two standing there trusting Diggle to keep an eye on Roy as he made his way over to the woman in blue, otherwise known as Mrs. Walters.

"Oliver Queen! I Haven't seen you in so long! How have you been?" She said with the more enthusiasm than he could handle at the moment.

"I'm good Mrs. Walters, thank you. I have a question for you though. That man you were talking to before, in the red tie, do you know who that was?" She looked in thought for a moment before realizing who he meant.

"Oh! That was Jarred Daniels. Lovely young man. He's in town visiting his brother, Marc. Why do you ask?"

"Just thought he looked familiar, ma'am. Thank you. Enjoy the rest of your night." He walked away, back towards Diggle. The had come back to collect Roy while he was talking to Mrs. Walters.

"We have a name." Digg nodded. Determination flashing through both their eyes.

This ends tonight.


	5. Chapter 5

**This took way longer for me to get to than I intended. My apologies if there's anyone out there following this story. Unfortunately, it seems to have gotten away from me in this chapter. Took on a live of its own. I've been finishing this chapter up while at work so the proof-reading has been minimal just to warn you. Also thank you to '**_**afanficfan'**_** for the idea of them seeing those guys somewhere else. I changed it up of course, but I had originally planned on stopping it shortly after that. Huge thanks to all the other reviewers and to whoever added this to their favorites. Feedback is a huge motivation for me! So thank you guys so much! :] **

**On another note, I'm debating whether the next chapter should be in Oliver's POV or if I should continue from the end of this chapter? The struggle is real people! Also, I usually try to do at least 3,000 words per chapter so this one is shorter compared to the rest. Ahhh x.x**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

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><p>When Felicity got home that evening she felt like doing nothing and everything all at once. She felt tired, but had no desire to go to sleep. She felt like crying, but found no release. She wanted to be productive, but had no energy to do anything. She wanted to go out, stay home, avoid the world, and be around everyone all in the same thought. She was emotionally drained and she hated it. Hated her loss of control over her own emotions. Hated that she was in this dilemma. Hated that she had been so dependent on Oliver.<p>

Though through all the hate and uncertainty, there was one gleam of light in her dark rattled mess of a mind. A sliver of worth in her current state of distress and anxiety.

Since day one she never doubted Oliver Queen as being a good man. Even with all that the media had put out trying to make him out as a spoiled rich kid. Sure he was like that pre-island days, but even when he came back they tried belittling him. As time went by she realized he wasn't a good man, but a great one. Probably the best she would ever know. She knew he was sincere and caring no matter how stoic he appeared. He had five years of hell and pent up anger, but nothing could burn out the light of him that she had come to love so much about him. He was Oliver Queen, CEO of Queen Consolidated. Her boss. Partner. But most importantly, her friend. And she'd be lying if she said she didn't have feelings for him. The same feelings of which she let take over and engulf her in her time of need. She sought the comfort of him and he returned it full force and the care in which he gave her almost brought her to tears multiple times. He was able to snuff out the fear and pain and replace it with feelings she couldn't even place.

She didn't want to go to the gala because she was mentally and physically drained as well as self-conscious of the bruise marring her face. She didn't want to go because she wasn't even sure she'd be able to stand being surrounded by a bunch of people she didn't know. She didn't want to go because she wasn't sure she could be around Oliver's care and affection and still hold it all together.

Felicity wouldn't have traded that for the world. The fact that it brought out emotions that she wasn't quite sure she was able to handle, however, made her uneasy.

He would never feel the same about her.

So here she was. Sitting on her couch mindlessly surfing her way through well over four hundred channels with her feet propped up on the coffee table in front of her. Next to her feet sat an opened quart of mint chip ice cream. The silver spoon wedged into her favorite snack taunting her as the light reflected off the handle catching her eye no matter where she looked. She had taken it out before embarking on her mission to find something to get her mind off things intent on drowning every emotion, good or bad, with the creamy treat. As luck would have it, as soon as she went to take a bite she was overwhelmed with a loss of appetite and suddenly felt sick at the thought of eating it.

Now she was frustratingly trying to find something to watch. It didn't help that every show, movie, commercial, and even music video was making her jump with their unexpected noises whether it be a shout to another character or the vast difference in volumes between television program and advertisement. Things that never usually bothered her were now driving her insane. She thought she had finally been able to settle on something. Ten minutes in, the slam of a door from one of her neighbors resulted in her sending her remote half way across the room with a loud clatter as the back and batteries went sprawling across the floor.

With a sigh she got up to retrieve the fallen pieces. Putting the remote back together, she turned the television off, put the now pathetic looking ice cream away and went into her bedroom with her tablet debating on whether or not she wanted to find out more information on her attackers or not.

The answer was made apparent to her when she found herself waking up almost 4 hours later to the sound of her tablet notifying her that someone had logged on to her computers at the foundry.

On her way to the foundry she was slightly looking forward to having some arrow work to do. When her tablet had notified her she first checked the video footage to make sure no one had hacked her system or had broken into the arrow lair. Seeing that it was just Oliver and Digg she had relaxed not even thinking to see what they were looking up, just eager to get her life back to the norm and do arrow work.

As she was descending the stairs she could see Digg at her chair with Roy standing nearby. Digg was talking, not loud enough for her to make out what he was saying but enough for her to put together that whatever he was saying, it wasn't to Roy considering his lack of response.

Both of them whipped around upon hearing her walking towards them, having been too caught up in what they were doing to notice her entering the foundry to begin with.

"_Shit_" She heard Digg but she was focused on something else. Seeing Roy was stirring up several different emotions. Memories from the previous night filled her mind and she felt her eyes starting to water, but not so much from fear.

Striding forward, she stopped in front of Roy hesitating briefly before throwing her arms around his neck. He tensed at first but quickly regained his composure and returned the hug.

"Thank you." Though it was muffled, her choked out words were filled with such emotion that it made Roy hold on to her tighter. Suddenly feeling even worse that the guys had gotten away. "I owe you. Big time."

"Felicity. You don't owe me anything." He pulled away, looking down. "They got away. I'm sorry."

"No, you…" She trailed off, finally noticing what was up on the computer monitors. One screen was displaying the information she had been looking into previously. Another showing footage from a security camera. Taking a step closer, she spotted Oliver on the screen hooded up in his Arrow garb. "What's he doing?" Her tone was tense. Digg muted his earpiece connecting him to Oliver and stood up, his hands up in a surrendered gesture as Roy took a hesitant step back away from Felicity sensing her discovery might not go over so well. Digg shot him a look and he shrugged his shoulders.

"Felicity-"

"No. Digg? What's going on? I mean, I think I have a pretty idea good what's going on because you have the information about… about that guy up there. And Oliver's out there being the Arrow. Why is he out there? What is he planning on doing and- and why didn't you guys tell me about this? Where did you guys even find the information? I- I don't… You…" Somewhere during her rant, John had guided her into the chair, her back facing the computers, but she was now just registering that it had happened. Digg was kneeling in front of the chair and Roy had since come closer, now leaning against the table.

"He was at the gala." Her head whipped towards Roy, eyes wide as John sighed. Seeing she was about to question Roy, he gently grabbed her hand bringing her attention back to him.

"Roy saw one of them there. He was in Oliver's house. Apparently he comes from a wealthy family and is always donating." Roy scoffed. "He was gone before we could get to him or even get a look at the guy, but we got a name-"

"Jarred Daniels?"

"Wait, did you know him?" Roy looked at her confused.

"No, I uh, I hacked into SCPD and ran facial recognition of the sketches they got from that kid at the station and his came up with a match." She said sheepishly.

"I had a feeling you were doing something earlier." Digg sighed standing up. "Did you look into him?"

"No. I was going to, why? Is he Arrow worthy?"

"You mean besides the obvious?" Felicity flinched at Roy's words, "Sorry."

"No, but Oliver wasn't going to leave it until he dealt with the guy himself. With good reason. He-" She watched as Digg jerked in surprise, reaching up to unmute the comm.

"Oliver? What's happening? Was that a gunshot?"

"Digg?" Felicity was now sitting at the edge of the chair, hands tightened against the armrests.

"Oliver!" Digg's yell had Felicity standing up and taking the earpiece from his ear, ignoring him as he protested.

"_-got bodyguards. They saw me but I got away."_

"Oliver! What are you doing?! Get back here!" She didn't care that she was yelling at her boss. She didn't care if it was disrespectful or out of line. She didn't want Oliver putting his life at risk, or getting blood on his hands again because of her.

"_I can't do this right now, Felicity." _

"Please… just come back. I-"

_Bang!_

She shrieked and jumped back into Digg as the sound reverberated in her ear.

"Oliver?!" Hearing no answer she turned towards Digg, "There was a gunshot. He's not answering!"

She hadn't even realized that Roy had threw on his hoodie and ran out of the foundry at her words. Seeing that she was starting to shake as tears ran down her face, Digg sat her back in the chair once again and took the earpiece from her ear.

"Oliver? Oliver, can you hear me?" Seconds felt like hours. Turning the chair around to face the computers, she started typing away. Hacking into every security camera in the area he was, trying to find him in the monitors but couldn't focus as her eyes filled with more and more tears.

John waited with a baited breath. He tried a couple more time, watching as Felicity went looking through security cameras. He was about to follow Roy's lead and head to where Oliver was when he heard breathing coming through the comm.

"Oliver, man, talk to me."

"_They saw me. I had to hide until I could take them out. They got me in the leg though." _Digg sighed in relief upon hearing that Oliver was alive albeit wounded. He laid a gentle hand on Felicity's shoulder intent on getting her attention to let her know he had answered but she had not reacted until Digg spoke again. "How bad? Roy's on his way."

Realizing that he was no longer having a one sided conversation, Felicity's fingers paused against the keyboard. She whipped her head around to Digg, eyes wide and questioning seeking confirmation. When he nodded she turned the chair around and quickly stood up. She realized right away that was a bad idea when her head spun and she felt lightheaded.

"Woah, Felicity" Digg grabbed her arm to steady her, "You okay? Sit down." She shook her head.

"He's okay? Let me talk to him. Please."

"_What's wrong with Felicity? Digg! Is she okay?_" He sighed. He would take a bullet for either of them any time of any day, but they were both such an oblivious mess sometimes he wanted to beat them senseless. Figuratively of course.

"You good?"

"_For the moment."_

"You might not be for long." He took out the earpiece and handed it to a waiting Felicity. She took it and placed it in her ear.

"Oliver?" she said hesitantly.

"_Felicity." _She let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding.

"Oh god, Oliver, you're alive! I'm going to kill you! Whatever it is you're doing, you need to stop. Unless you plan on handing him over to Detective Lance. Which then I'm all for it, but I don't want you killing _again_ because of me. _Please_." Oliver was about to respond but he grunted in pain before he could say anything and Felicity caught it much to his dismay. "Oliver? Are you hurt? Oh god, how bad? Were you shot?!"

"_Felicity it's fine. Don't worry about it." _ His voice came out in a strained whisper. She wasn't sure if it was from pain or because he was trying to not get caught. Either way, it still made her heart clench in fear for him. She sniffed as fresh tears came around.

"Oliver, Roy's on his way. Just… please, just, come back with him and let this go." She pleaded.

"I can't just let that go, Felicity!" He was still trying to keep his voice down but his tone spoke in volumes. He couldn't just let that kind of thing go unpunished. He didn't have it in him to. They had hurt Felicity and that was not something he was willing to take lightly. "Put Digg back on."

"Oliver, no. Just leave it alone. Tie him up and leave him for Detective Lance. Don't do anything stupid." She pleaded.

"Felicity." Oliver was losing his patience. He couldn't understand why Felicity was fighting him on this. Wouldn't she want these guys to pay for what they did to her? _What they could have done to her._ He shuddered at the thought. Seeing red as new anger came over him.

"Don't kill them. Please. Not for me, Oliver."

"They're going to wish I would when I get through with them." He said it to himself more than to her, but he still said it aloud nonetheless, not even caring how it sounded.

Felicity cringed at his words, not liking this side of him. Sure, he's killed before. Not so much since Tommy died but she knew even the few times that he did, it got to him. The idea of dishonoring Tommy filled him with guilt and he tried to hide it, but she knew him better than that.

A sudden wave of exhaustion overcame her and she sank back into her chair. She hated feeling like this. The feeling of stress and fear rolled through her in waves. The exhaustion was getting old and she wanted nothing more than to go back to how things were before the other night. But that's not how things worked and she had to move passed it. Which is mainly why she was trying to get Oliver to back off but he wasn't budging.

"Be careful, Oliver." It barely came out as a whisper, but while it lacked in volume, her voice was filled with an array of emotions that left Oliver taken aback. Before he could recover, Felicity took out the earpiece and handed it back to Digg.

Leaning farther back into the chair, she wrapped her arms around her midsection subconsciously trying to seek comfort as her inner turmoil raged on. Aside from everything else that slowly suffocating her, she was becoming more and more aware of the fact that she was getting far too used to the comfort of Oliver's presence.

It scared her.

Ever since she could remember she tried to be independent. To not have to put her faith in someone that could let her down, much like her father did when he left. Growing up she distracted herself with computers to avoid her own emotions. It worked for a while but within time she bottled up so many of her own emotions that she eventually gained the habit of rambling. It sucked but she eventually got used to it…as used to it as she could anyway.

So here she was, not only fearing for Oliver's well-being but missing him as well. Deep down she knew she'd be fooling herself if she said she was just missing his comfort. Yeah, that was a big part of it but she missed him as a whole when he wasn't around her. When he wasn't there to make her feel safe. Not that she didn't feel safe around Digg, but this was different and she couldn't pinpoint how exactly, but there it was.

Lingering within her.

At least an hour had passed as she drowned in her inner thoughts. She didn't even realize until Digg came up next to her, placing the comm on the table beside her.

"They're on their way back."


	6. Chapter 6

**This certainly took longer to write than I had intended. But that's apparently common for me woops haha 5,468 words later and I'm not quite sure how I like this, or how you readers will like it x.x but I hope it's worth reading! There's one more chapter, unless I get carried away again considering this was originally supposed to be a one-shot haha but I'm pretty confident in there being one more chapter. Enjoy!**

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><p>His intent was to kill.<p>

To make use of every arrow he had on him.

It was against what he had been doing since the Glades went down. It was against what Felicity believed in. Since she first started she was against him killing unless absolutely necessary, but he had a mission to fulfill. At least he thought he did. She and Diggle are what keep him grounded from becoming what he was before. He'll admit he's stubborn, but it's warranted and he knows what he's doing.

But none of that matters when someone hurts someone on his team. Someone he's close to.

When she joined the team he swore not to let anything happen to her.

To protect her.

It ripped him apart knowing he had been so close to her that night, and yet couldn't have stopped her from getting attacked. That he didn't even know what was happening. Felicity was the heart of the team. It wasn't hard to figure out how much of a good person she was. How great she was. He found himself smiling more due to her than anyone or anything else and he couldn't explain it. So to see her so broken and shaken made him feel worse than anything he's ever felt before. Even on the island, Shado's life was taken, but she didn't suffer.

It should bother him.

It should bother him that he was going after these guys, and yet it didn't. Not at all. He's killed before and he lost track of the body count a while ago. It didn't matter. He didn't care now.

What he cares about is that he can't help Felicity. He can't go back and change things. He can't make her forget. He can't do _anything_.

It kills him.

This was the only thing he could do to help.

Which is why walking away from where the one person he wanted to drive an arrow through was, was driving him absolutely mad.

Everything instinct in him was fighting it, not at all comfortable with what he was doing. But Felicity had pleaded with him to come back. He knew that she was worried about him, but how did she think he felt?

Lost in thought, he stumbled on a divot in the ground, almost losing his grip on Roy's shoulder. Pain from the bullet wound in his leg seared white hot.

"Man, you alright?" Roy asked as he helped Oliver stand upright again. Oliver didn't answer, instead turning to look toward the building he occupied only five minutes prior. Roy could see that Oliver was having an inner battle and he understood, but he wasn't in the same boat.

He walked them over to a wall just out of sight and leaned Oliver against it. "Wait here." He turned to leave when Oliver spoke up.

"Roy, stop."

"She doesn't want you going in there. Which I can see 'cause you've got a bullet in your leg. That doesn't mean I can't finish what I started."

"This isn't your fight, Roy." Roy went rigid before staring at Oliver with a look of disbelief. "If that's the card you want to play, I could say the same to you. It's as much my fight as it is yours. If not more." He stopped and Oliver thought he was finished until he sighed, clenching his hands, "It's my fault they got away. I should have… If I had gotten there sooner…" He trailed off and it was in that moment that Oliver really got a good look at the kid.

The look of pure guilt completely threw Oliver.

But he understood it. Understood the need to confront something that you felt responsible for. Hell, it was why he came out here in the first place.

Oliver lifted a hand to his ear to un-mute the comm.

"Digg, Roy's finishing it out. Lead him in."

"_You got it."_

Roy looked at him with wide eyes as he handed him the ear piece. Oliver gave him a nod, but as soon as he started to walk back toward the building, he grabbed Roy by his shoulder stopping him in his tracks. Roy looked at him confused. "Wait," He stopped, clenching his jaw and fists in frustration before continuing, "Don't kill them. Just…do anything but."

"What? What are you talking about?" Roy looked at him completely baffled by the request.

"Felicity. She would hate herself if you killed someone because of her."

"Well maybe you, but I don't think she'd give a damn if I did." His eyebrow quirked.

"Roy, trust me, even you. Just… knock 'em out. Tie 'em up. We'll get Lance to pick them up right away. You can even take one of my arrows to drive through his leg. Just, don't kill anyone unless _absolutely _necessary, do you understand?" After some hesitation and an authoritative glare, Roy nodded.

He watched Roy walk away, everything in him wanting nothing more than to follow after. To go in there and do what he came there to do in the first place. Instead, he leaned against the wall and held back every urge to go in there. Not because he wanted to.

That's not at all what he wanted to do. He did, however, want to follow Felicity's wishes. And as much as it tore at him to go against his instincts, he needed to respect Felicity's request above anything else.

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><p>"Are you digging a moat?" At the look of pure confusion Digg continued. "Felicity, you've been pacing nonstop for the past ten minutes."<p>

"I'm sorry. I'm just….thinking." She sighed.

"About how you're going to kill Oliver when he gets back?" She gave him a brief smile.

"Basically." She sighed, taking a seat in her computer chair. She was about to say more when the sound of the door opening stopped her. She whirled around to see Roy nearly carrying Oliver down the stairs, Oliver leaning heavily on him as they descended. She bit back a gasp as she saw the hole in his thigh from the bullet wound. The surrounding material coated in his blood.

Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, Digg was there to help support Oliver from his other side.

"Did you have fun?" Digg jested as they made their way to the medical table.

"A blast." Oliver grunted out. Felicity stood back while she struggled between concern and something else. She wanted to feel angry that he didn't listen to her, but instead she felt betrayed and hurt. But seeing him in pain now was only making her feel guilt. He was shot and it was because of her, once again.

She watched as they helped him onto the table, or tried rather since he seemed intent on doing it himself. She grabbed the cart of supplies and wheeled it over towards them so Digg could do what he needed to fix Oliver up. When she got closer the sight of the blood was all she could look at.

Her mind suddenly flooded with images of how much worse he could have came back.

_If_ he came back.

At that, she tried to shake the images, not wanting to think of all the things that could have happened to Oliver. All the things she sees him go through on a regular basis.

She lifted her gaze to look at him, but he wasn't looking at her. Instead him and Digg were talking in hushed tones, her not close enough to really make out what they were saying. Not really caring what they were saying as she was still slightly reeling from him going against her and him getting hurt. Not that she had much control over him. He was the Arrow after all, and a grown man. He could do whatever he wanted she supposed. It still hurt.

She was brought out of her thoughts as Roy came to stand next to her. Looking up at him she saw the blood running down the side of his face from his hairline.

"Oh you're bleeding, Roy!" He looked at her puzzled bringing a hand up to his face staring as his hand came back red.

"It's nothing. It's just a scratch, it'll be fine." She dismissed him, walking over to the cart to grab a couple of wipes and disinfectant. She knew the cut was superficial but she needed to busy herself with something.

"Even so, I'm sure you don't want to walk around with blood running down your face." She brought the saturated wipe up to his head to clean the cut when he hissed at the burn. "Oh, don't be a baby. It's just a little sting." He sighed and gave in letting her continue.

"How'd you get this anyway? Did Oliver punch you for trying to save him or something?" She asked as she wiped away the last of the blood.

"What? No, I…" He trailed off realizing she perhaps had no idea of what had happened. "Nevermind."

"Okay." Felicity returned slowly. She threw the materials in the nearby trash and turned to see Digg finishing up the last stitch in Oliver's leg.

"Alright well that's all done. I'm gonna head out, you gonna be alright?"

"Yeah, Digg, thanks." Oliver said slowly getting off the table before testing out the tolerance of his newly stitched leg. He winced slightly.

Felicity winced just watching. Digg gave her a light squeeze to the shoulder as he walked by, "Call me if you need anything, got it?" She nodded and turned away.

Turned away from Oliver's direction. Not to directly ignore him, but to try and block out the theories in her mind as to what he did prior to coming back to the foundry. She vaguely heard as Roy said his goodbyes and proceeded to exit not far behind Digg.

It was suddenly quiet. The humming of the computers filled the room and after a few moments she was sure that Oliver had left as well until she heard his footsteps behind her. She turned around to face him, but he wasn't looking at her.

Until he did.

Their eyes met and she felt like she was drowning in not only her emotions, but his as well. Overwhelmed, she looked away and went to take a step back, but as she did he reached forward placing a hand on her upper arm to stop her.

"Felicity…"

And that was all it took to break her from her thoughts.

"What were you _thinking_?" He reeled, not expecting the words or the tone that came from the blonde. Just as he regained composure enough to give her a response, she continued. "Do you think it's fun for me to sit here and worry about you going off and risking you life? _For me?_ Oh, well I guess you wouldn't considering the fact that you didn't even _tell me. _Were you ever going to tell me? I suppose not, right? I mean what does it matter, why should I know, right? I'm only the one they attacked. No big deal!_"_

"Felicity, that's enough." Oliver said lowly, try his best not to lose his temper, but here she was yelling at him and berating him like a child when all he ever wanted to do was to protect her.

"_That's enough_?Why didn't you tell me what you were doing? I could have helped you at least! Instead you go out and you get shot! What if it was worse, Oliver? What if you died? Do you know what that would do to me if you died trying to fight my battles for me! You could have just left this alone! You-"

"Stop!" He cut her off mid-rant, watching as her angry tears were making themselves known. "I couldn't have left this alone, Felicity! They hurt you and I wasn't going to let that just go. Not when I could have stopped this from the beginning." She was confused to say the least, not understanding what he meant, trying the wrap her head around his words. She didn't have to do much thinking before he made it clear. "I should have stayed with you that night. I know what it's like out there and I should have fucking _been there_!"

"Oliver- I-? I'm an adult. I'm not a _child_! I should be able to walk out to my car without you escorting me there, no matter where we are."

"Yeah and look how well that went." She balked at his words.

"I didn't… I didn't mean it like that." He sighed, hanging his head low as he ran a hand through his hair. When he looked back up at her she was surprised to see tears in his own eyes. For a moment she had to blink away her own to make sure she was seeing correctly.

"You got hurt, and I'm so sorry. I should have… I should have been able to do _something_. And then they got away and I just needed them to pay for what they did to you. I can't stand seeing you like this, Felicity."

At a momentary loss of words, she turned away. Anxiously biting at her nail, trying to compose herself. Trying to contain the anger, the pain, the hurt, and the worry she still had yet to subside. She squeezed her eyes shut as her eyes felt the burn of her tears. She turned back around to Oliver. His hands were clenched at his side, the inner battle that he was usually so good at hiding was written all over his face. Though Felicity thought maybe that was just because she was so in tune to him at times.

"He's dead?" She asked quietly, not sure if she really wanted to hear what he was going to say.

"_No_."

One word. Two measly little letters and yet coming from him, it sounded like so much more. He sounded so pained that it gripped at her heart. Within seconds she was suddenly baffled by the answer, not expecting it.

"But, you…"

He looked at her then. Saying so much more with his eyes than he ever could with his words and she was taken aback as the next words left his mouth.

"You asked me not to."

"You listened? But you were so-… You sounded so sure. So determined earlier. I don't- What changed your mind?" She was generally confused. She knows she asked him not to, but by the end of that conversation she didn't think there was even the slightest chance that he would comply. And yet here he was, telling her he did.

"I had every intention of going in there and releasing every arrow I owned into him. And then after we talked, I… I couldn't deliberately disrespect your wishes like that. As much as I wanted to. I still want nothing more than to see him dead. But I refuse to lose you over this. Not when I could have lost you to him to being with."

"He's still out there?" She asked hesitantly.

"No, Roy took care of it." And with that her eyes went wide and he suddenly realized she was thinking exactly what he warned Roy of. "No,_ no. _Not like that. Daniels was there, conveniently with the other guy from Verdant. He knocked them around. They're still alive. Roy strung them up on a fence and we called it in to Detective Lance. We hid out until he arrived to make sure they didn't get away again."

Felicity let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Relieved now that they were now in custody, but more relieved that neither him nor Roy killed for her. Relieved the Oliver was okay with the exception of getting shot in the leg. The past few hours she was completely stressed as fear and worry coursed through her. Now as she knew that Oliver was okay, that he was back here, and that him and Roy had got the guys the stress and anxiety she previously felt were now dwindling only to be rapidly replaced with exhaustion. A feeling she wanted nothing more than to do without, having felt she had enough to last her a lifetime.

Standing was annoyingly beginning to feel like a task and her head felt heavy as she closed her eyes to try and gain equilibrium. Suddenly feeling the need to sit down, she went to turn to sit in her computer chair but stumbled.

"Woah," Oliver stepped forward and grabbed her by her shoulders to steady her despite the protest of his leg, "Hey, you alright?" She closed her eyes at the warmth of his hands through her shirt and nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah, just tired all of the sudden. I spent all this time worrying you were dead, it's catching up to me I guess." Oliver shot her an apologetic look and eased her down into her chair. He bent down slightly, bracing one hand on the arm of the chair as the other brushed a loose strand out of her face before resting against the side of her face.

"Felicity, I'm sorry. I am, but I need to keep you safe. Even if I'm doing a terrible job at it. I can't stand seeing you hurt." She leaned into his touch. "Come on, let's get you home alright?" He removed his hand, taking a step back.

"More like let's get you home. I'm not the one with the gunshot wound." She said lightly, slowly rising out of the chair.

"Don't argue with me." Oliver said jokingly.

Together they made their way up the stairs and out of the foundry, mostly with her trying to help ease the weight on his leg despite his protests. When they reached Felicity's car, she went to grab her keys only to discover she didn't have them. Figuring she left them back inside she turned to Oliver to let him know but when she turned to him he was standing with the passenger door open, keys dangling from his fingers.

"Get in." He gestured to the passenger seat with a nod of his head.

"Yeah right, Oliver, give me my keys." She said exasperatedly.

"Felicity, you look like you're about to pass out. I'm more than capable of driving right now." He gave her a look that left no argument. That didn't stop her from her sigh of disbelief at him as she got in the passenger side of her own car. At least this time, it was under slightly better circumstances.

They drove through the streets in comfortable silence until reaching Felicity's place. They both got out of the car and he went with her to make sure she got safely inside, not wanting to leave her until he knew she was secure in her home. Once he was comfortable leaving her, he went to said his goodbye turning to leave.

"Oliver? How do you expect to get home with no car?"

"When has that ever stopped me from getting around before?" Oliver smiled briefly at her before turning towards the door but a small hand on his arm stopped him.

"Don't be stupid, Oliver, It's late. You can stay here. I'll drive you home tomorrow unless you want Digg to pick you up, but either way, it's not a problem. You shouldn't be walking, or running, whatever it is you do to get around- on that leg. It doesn't look too good for Oliver Queen to be roaming the streets so late at night anyway. Not that anyone would see you. You're pretty sneaky. Then again, leaving your assistant's house in the morning wouldn't be too great either, but-"

She stopped, not realizing she had been rambling until she noticed the amused look on Oliver's face. "Sorry. Even much needed sleep can't keep me from rambling."

"It's okay, Felicity." He laughed.

"So, the offer still stands…?" She suggested.

He didn't answer right away, just looking at her. For a moment she wasn't sure if she said something wrong. Was she out of place suggesting it? She was about to try and redeem herself, for reasons she wasn't even sure of, when he said 'okay'.

"Great. Okay, um. I have a pull-out couch, or-"

"That's fine, Felicity. Thank you." She nodded heading towards a closet in the hallway to grab a pillow and blanket for him. She returned to see him already almost done pulling out the couch-bed.

"Okay, well, I'll be down the hall. If you need anything just help yourself." She handed him the stuff from the closet and with that she said 'goodnight' and headed towards her room.

She changed out of her clothes into sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt before heading to her attached bathroom to brush her teeth and whatnot. After finishing her nightly routine, she headed back into her bedroom and climbed into her bed.

Most nights she was able to fall asleep fairly quickly. Sometimes as soon as her head hit the pillow she was out like a light. Though tonight was different and the usual comfort of her bed was not what she was finding. She spent the next fifteen minutes continuously kicking the covers off, and putting them back on. She switched sides nineteen times.

Worst of all every time she tried closing her eyes, she saw either saw Jarred Daniels' leering smile, or Oliver lying in a pool of his own blood. Regardless of what she went through the other night, she wished it was only the former she was seeing as opposed to the latter. But with no luck, the image of a bloody lifeless Oliver was winning over the former. She laid in her bed staring at the ceiling not wanting to admit that she was missing the feeling of Oliver at her side. Even though sharing his bed with him the other night was under terrible circumstances, she couldn't help but feel that was what she needed. Instead, she tried to get past that feeling, but it was becoming increasingly difficult as the silence of night was forcing her to rethink everything that had happened the past couple of days. Especially tonight and the fear she felt sitting in the foundry waiting to find out if Oliver was okay. As all these thoughts flooded her mind she felt like she couldn't breathe.

Sitting up, she threw off the too-constricting blanket and stood up making her way to the door. Just as she was about to grab the handle she stopped, trying to rationalize herself. Trying to calm herself down and not seem like such a fool. The wetness she felt on her cheeks made the decision for her and she grabbed the handle pulling the door open.

She made her way to the end of the hall before she stopped just a few feet from where Oliver lay. Her plan was to quietly call his name and see if he was even awake. But instead, much to her dismay, a small sob came out instead. Oliver was up out of the pull-out and in front of her in an instant.

"Felicity? Hey, what's going on? Are you okay?" He asked full of concern. Not being a light sleeper he had heard her in her room and then walking down the hall. He didn't think anything of it thinking maybe she just needed water or something until her footsteps stopped just at the entrance of the room. He was about to check and see what was going on when her sob filled the then silent room. He almost broke his neck at the speed in which he got up.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"Hey, hey talk to me." He said gently, bending down to look directly at her as she was trying to look anywhere but him. Another sob ripped from her throat.

"I thought- When I heard that gunshot go off I… and then when you said you were going after him, I-" He quickly pulled her into his arms and she wrapped her small arms around him with as much as she could muster needing to feel he was there. He had been in much worse situations before that she felt her current outburst was entirely irrational, but it seems she had no control over herself these days. She knew she would be embarrassed by this later but she couldn't find it in her to care at that moment, instead she held on to Oliver tighter. The fact that he was shirtless didn't even phase her as it usually would have.

Before she could react, Oliver had her lifted in his arms as he carried her to her bedroom. He lowered her onto the bed, climbing in next the her as she wrapped her arms around him once more.

"I'm sorry." She nearly whispered as she was starting to relax.

"Shh, don't be sorry." He ran a hand lightly through her hair and without even trying she fell asleep wrapped in his arms.

She woke up early in the morning with a heavy pressure against her upper body. She startled for a second before realizing it was just Oliver, his arm draped across her. It was then that she realized she was basically pressed against him. Pressed against his shirtless torso. Not that she could really complain. Just look at it.

She slowly glanced up at his face to see his eyes still closed. Realizing she wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep at this point she slowly tried to remove herself from Oliver's side so she could get up. It seemed, however, that their legs weren't exactly in their own separate corners of the ring. She tried to get her leg out from under his not wanting to wake him, knowing he needed rest after last night. After taking care of her the past couple nights.

"What are you doing?" She stilled before turning to look at Oliver. His eyes were still closed and his position hadn't moved so she thought maybe she was hearing things until he opened his eyes looking directly at her.

"I didn't want to wake you, but your dead-weight isn't as easy to maneuver as I thought it was going to be."

"Wouldn't expect it to be for a little thing like yourself." She huffed as he smiled, pulling himself up against the headboard and repositioning his legs with ease. She wasn't sure how to approach that fact that she was very well into his personal space during the night. She remembered the night before clearly as he carried her into her bed and laid with her, but part of her wasn't expecting him to still be there when she woke up. She was glad he stayed but now she was feeling a little uneasy about her outburst last night.

"I need coffee, would you like some? Great, I'm going to go make it." She said quickly not really giving him a chance to reply before she was out of the bed and headed into the kitchen.

After setting the coffee maker to brew she leaned against the counter staring at the floor her mind surprisingly blank considering. A couple minutes later Oliver emerged from her bedroom. She watched as he approached the doorway, trying to ignore how good he look as he leaned against the open doorframe.

"So," He started quietly, his eyes everywhere but on her until he found his words, "I'm sorry… if I scared you. I didn't even think that-"

"That I would care if you died?" Felicity interrupted incredulously.

"No, of course not. Or…maybe, I don't know. I didn't think it would effect you as much as it did. I would never consciously put you through that."

"You cared when I got hurt right?" At her words he looked like she had just slapped him.

"Of course I car-"

"Then the same is obviously going to go for you. I don't want you to get hurt because of me." She said as she turned trying to busy herself with the task of pouring coffee. Oliver let out a humorless laugh and she understood why.

"We're kind of going in circles with each other on this one aren't we" She said lightly and turned to face him but didn't expect to turn and see him right next to her, not having heard him move. She set down the coffee pot, hand over her heart.

"You need bells, Oliver!" She exclaimed.

"Felicity," She wasn't quite sure what happened, but suddenly the air in the room felt different, "I'll continue to do whatever it takes to keep you safe." She didn't know it was possible for him to have gotten even closer but suddenly she needed to tilt her head back just to look at him. Her breath hitched as she looked into his eyes, a look she had not seen from him before and suddenly he was leaning down towards her.

Part of her wanted to pull back and ask him what he was doing. But that was such a small insignificant part compared to the part of her that was leaning into the hold he had on her as his arm came up to rest on her back pulling her towards him. She gasped as his lips met hers soft and gentle despite how she imaged kissing Oliver Queen would be. But this was so much better. She arched into him as his tongue ran along her bottom lip and she involuntarily sighed as his tongue swept across her own.

She brought her arms up and around Oliver's neck to try and deepen the kiss. Their breaths increased and she moaned into his mouth as he tugged at her lower lip. Suddenly his mouth was off hers and instead trailing kisses down her jaw. When he reached her neck her mind took her back to the last place she wanted to be.

She immediately pulled away her hands braced on his chest as he looked at her questioningly. Felicity didn't speak, didn't look away. Instead she looked right into Oliver's eyes reminding herself that she was safe in her home in Oliver's arms and that she wanted this. She stared long enough to burn the haunting images out her mind and when she leaned up to connect her mouth with his once more she made sure it was a feeling she would never forget.

Not that she could if she tried.

He tentatively returned the kiss and when they pulled back for air she stepped back.

"Sorry, I just… the other night and all." Oliver looked at her pained, suddenly guilt-ridden not having thought of the consequences of his actions. Just knowing in that moment he needed to feel her lips on his.

"Felicity, I'm so sorry, I didn't even think…"

"No, no. Oliver, it's okay. It's so okay." She stepped forward burying her face into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her without question.

She could have stayed like that all day had it not been for the sound of her cell phone going off. She groaned before removing herself from Oliver's hold.

"I should get that." She handed him the previously poured cup of coffee before making her way to her bedroom to retrieve her phone.

Looking at the caller ID to see Detective Lance's name, she sighed having known this was going to happen eventually. With a heavy breath she hit the green button to answer the call as she sat back on her bed.

"Hello, Detective." She greeted.

"Good morning, Ms. Smoak. I'm sorry to bother you this early but we have those men in custody and we just need a confirmed ID from you."

"Okay, yeah, sure. Um, when should I be there?"

"Any time before 6 will work. Don't rush. We have everything else covered for now we just need the positive identification from you to finalize everything. They'll remain in custody though so take you're time."

"Right, okay. Thank you, Detective." She said goodbye to the man before hanging up the phone and placing it on her nightstand.

"Another trip to the police station?" She looked up at Oliver who at some point took stance at her bedroom doorway. She nodded at him as she felt well needed relief. She was confident in them being brought to justice after Oliver filled in her on what happened, but the call from Detective Lance confirmed everything.

She smiled up at Oliver as he came to sit next to her and she leaned into him as he put an arm around her shoulder.

"Thank you, Oliver." He said nothing, but placed a small kiss atop her head and gripped her with his arm a little tighter to hold her closer to him.

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><p><strong>And there's chapter 6! What did you think? Review please! Even if it's just a short little message, it makes it easier for me to tell how I'm doing x.x Thank you again! <strong>


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